Rike is a professor in 'Palaeophysiology of plants in the context of environmental change', with a strong background in palaeoecology and palaeobotany. Rike is involved in teaching Biology and Geosciences courses, experimental work in the UU phytotron and botanical gardens, and a variety of research projects focusing on reconstructing environmental change through time, using pollen, diatoms and stomata. Her research particularly focuses on plant responses to changing CO2 concentrations in the past and present. By studying modern plant-environment interactions in the field as well as in experimental set-ups, her research provides calibration data for palaeoecological proxies. As such, she can reconstruct past environmental conditions and climate change.

dr. Timme Donders

Timme is an experienced palaeoecologist and assistant professor at Utrecht University. Timme is involved in research, laboratory operations and teaching Biology and Geosciences courses. His current research focuses on land-sea correlations in warm climates, long Quaternary records, and the use of annual-scale signals in high-resolution pollen. He has worked on interdisciplinary palaeo-projects all over the world, ranging from the Netherlands to Macedonia, and from the USA (Florida) to Australia and Ecuador.

Postdoctoral researchers

Dr. Aleksandra Cvetkoska

As expert in freshwater diatoms, Aleksandra’s research focuses on ancient Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania). Lake Ohrid is an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979; and it is the oldest and most diverse lake in Europe with more than 300 endemic species. An International Continental Deep Drilling (ICDP) campaign was conducted at Lake Ohrid in the spring 2013 and ca. 600 m long sediment sequence was recovered at water depth of ca. 245 m. As a science team member of a major international project, Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid (SCOPSCO, http://www.ohrid-drilling.org), Aleksandra is involved as one of the experts studying the diatoms in this sediment record. The preliminary results from the ~1.2 million years old sediment sequence showed evidence for evolutionary events in the diatom record. A major group of international scientists is now focusing on detailed analysis of this core in order to understand the link between the environment and the evolution.

Dr. Alejandra Goldenberg

Alejandra is an ecologist and palaeoecologist currently developing diatom based models to infer salinity, tidal height and nutrient concentrations for environmental and sea level reconstructions in the Wadden Sea during the Holocene. Specifically, she is interested in exploring diatom functional groups, known as ecological guilds, in marine and brackish environments. These groups are especially sensitive to environmental changes and habitat conditions, which make them a valuable tool for ecological monitoring and climate reconstructions. Other advantages of the use of ecological guilds is that they are universal to all diatom species, so they can be applied to different ecosystems and geographical areas. In addition, it is easier to identify diatoms to functional group level than to individual species and therefore also time and cost-effective.

PalaeoBlog

This blog is written by the Master- and PhD-students, Post-docs and Professors of the Palaeoecology research group. With this blog we would like to give you an insider’s look on being a Palaeoecology researcher. We will share our ideas, thoughts, proceedings and scientific findings with you, while also showing you that science is a lot of fun!